A Boy in the Attic
(for Don Gibson)

If my cheeks appear forever tearstained
You should look into my heart
Where red blood is mixed with my tears.

"For what?" You ask,
The loss of you.

"But I am not lost. You didn’t lose me," he answers.

"If darkness makes us invisible
to each other, Look for a glimmer
of light to find a little boy in an attic
Of a cold Iowa farm house
With the orange of the fire in the stove.

If silence surrounds you,
Look for the feet of a farm boy,
drenched by the dew,
Feel the hands of a young boy,
caked with earth, that black Iowa earth
Where he sprouted out of
his mother’s womb to look for you.

The boy who left
Cows to graze, pigs to be slaughtered
For the bellies of farmers
In search of the new world.

Harbor no sorrow for that boy
The boy found a home with you.

No, I am not lost.You didn’t lose me.
I am with you from dawn to dusk
And into the dark night."

Aigo

A long line of mourners
In coarse cotton clothes
Wail - - Aigo, Aigo, Aigo
At a Korean funeral procession.

The unending sound of Aigo
Stretches  high up to the sky
And covers the blue sky with
Dark clouds, turning into
Rain falls like tears running
Down the cheeks.
Aigo, Aigo, Aigo.

Somewhere in a village,
A grandma blinks her eyes
At the sight of a young man,
Incredulous and joyful,
“Aigo, am I dreaming?
Is this really you? My grand-son!
Now I can close my eyes.
Aigo, Aigo, you came back.”

With the same sound of Aigo,
You can cry or laugh,
Or both at the same time.

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© Copyright, 2014, Dai Sil Kim-Gibson .
All Rights Reserved.